Embodiments of the present inventive concept relate to image sensing technology, and more particularly, embodiments of the present inventive concept relate to image sensors, methods of operating image sensors, and devices including the image sensors.
A CMOS image sensor is a solid-state image sensing device which is fabricated using a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. As such, when compared to other types of images sensors such as charge coupled device (CCD) image sensors, a CMOS image sensor can be manufactured at relatively low cost. In addition, the CMOS image sensor exhibits relatively low power consumption when compared to CCD image sensors.
These advantages, coupled with improved performance, have led to the CMOS image sensor being widely adopted in a variety of electric home appliances as well as portable devices such as smart phones and digital cameras.
One technical challenge presented by CMOS image sensors relates to ambient light. That is, ambient light can add noise to image data obtained by the CMOS image sensor, and when a different amount of ambient light is incident on pixels included in the CMOS image sensor, the image data may be distorted.